IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, the sixth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), claims that we can only solve the world’s environmental problems if we solve the problems of the city.Looking through the lens of landscape architecture, IABR–2014– redefines... View full entry »

IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, the sixth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), claims that we can only solve the world’s environmental problems if we solve the problems of the city.Looking through the lens of landscape architecture, IABR–2014– redefines... View full entry »

Modernist houses from Asheville to Wilmington received top honors last week in the third annual George Matsumoto Prize for Modernist residential design across the state, sponsored by the award-winning non-profit organization North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH).The houses submitted had to be... View full entry »

In need of a fresh perspective on sustainable design that goes beyond the ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all things deemed as green? The book Behind the Green Door - A Critical Look at Sustainable Architecture through 600 Objects could help with that. And Archinect is giving away five copies to our... View full entry »

The city of Jericho sits in the hot, flat Jordan Valley down the hill from Jerusalem. Jericho has bragging rights as one of the oldest towns on Earth. But one of its newest homes looks like it might have arrived from outer space.

Ahmad Daoud hired a firm of young Palestinian architects to build this house. Like Jericho's original homes, it is built of dirt. This one has a contemporary twist, though: It's constructed with earth compacted in bags that are then stacked and plastered over.
— npr.org

"[...] In this project, we're using a living organism as a factory. So the living organism of mycellium, or hyphae, which is basically a mushroom root, basically makes our bricks for us. It grows our bricks in about five days with no energy required, almost no carbon emissions, and it's using basically waste— agricultural byproducts, chopped up cornstalks. This mushroom root fuses together this biomass and makes solid bricks which we can kind of tune to be different properties."
— The Creators Project

Here are a few more photos of Hy-Fi, the locally-sourced, virtually waste-less biostructure by The Living, which just debuted in the courtyard of MoMA PS1.Photos by Andrew Nunes.In the video below, David Benjamin talks with The Creators Project about building the structure from agricultural waste... View full entry »

The Make It Right foundation has unveiled its new home designs for the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana. Following LEED Platinum certification and Cradle to Cradle practices, the foundation is known for building sustainable homes for people in need. For the Ft. Peck project, Make... View full entry »

The wisdom of surrounding transit stations with "seas" of park-and-ride lots may be turning. In theory, park-and-ride seems like a great transportation compromise, converting full-trip drivers into part-trip riders. In practice, the opposite often occurs, with former non-drivers now commuting part of the way by car.

That unexpected practical shift can increase vehicle miles traveled in a metro area, subverting the sustainability goal of transit.
— citylab.com

That's because, as the economists Richard Koo and Masaya Sasaki show in a report, 15 years after being built the average house is worth nothing. [...] "It's not environmentally sustainable but also not financially sustainable. People work very hard to pay off a mortgage that's ultimately worth zero."

[...] It has also produced a huge number of architects, who are kept busy by buyers wanting a new house that reflects their lifestyle.
— theguardian.com

New homes in America are a lot bigger than they used to be. In fact since 1950 they've doubled in size, to an average about 2,500-square feet per home. And a bigger home generally uses more energy. So one college professor is attempting to trash some of our ideas about home ownership, by sleeping in a six-by-six-foot dumpster.

[...] this month, Wilson moved into a sanitized recycling dumpster on the Austin, Texas, campus of Huston-Tillotson University.
— marketplace.org

Your assignment is to come up with an idea so revolutionary that it could be considered an important advance in industrial design.

Students at Rice University in Houston accomplished that with plans for a floating city that is being considered by one of the world's largest oil companies. Last year, the students won the inaugural Odebrecht Award for a radical design of man-made floating islands where as many as 25,000 oil workers and their families could live.
— npr.org

Previously featured in our Student Works and Screen/Print series, "The Petropolis of Tomorrow" proposes a new style of floating company towns to aid Brazil in offshore oil findings. NPR now reports that the project has surpassed its academic role to be considered by Petrobas, a Brazilian... View full entry »

The long and varied history of waste and its removal in New York from the 18th century onwards is the subject of Elizabeth Royte’s 2005 book Garbage Land and of the Urban Omnibus City of Systems video she narrates. In the video, Royte describes how her research into where exactly her trash was going after she threw it out has led her to become a more ecological citizen, with “a systems view” of our interconnected processes of manufacturing, transportation, disposal and re-use.
— Urban Omnibus

In a new exhibition, Michael Pawlyn lays out his vision for architecture inspired by the natural world – including biorock buildings grown entirely underwater and whole office blocks being lit by learning from the blind sea star. [...]

“All my work is driven by a frustration with the word ‘sustainable’,” he says. “It suggests something that is just about good enough, but we need to be looking at truly restorative solutions.
— theguardian.com

Canadian company Dirtt provides reusable building components and 3D design software, but is still convincing architects it's more sustainable than other options - and worth the price
— The Guardian

My friend Bill wrote this article in the Guardian about a Canadian company called DIRTT, which claims to be reducing construction-related waste with its 3D modeling software and "made-to-order building materials that snap into place". It's being used by companies such as Google and... View full entry »